Category: outside resource

Keep Showing Up

Some of us have a little voice. (Hi.) You know that voice. (Hi, again.) That little voice will show up at the most inopportune of times. (You’re welcome.) You start a creative endeavour, be it cooking, drawing, writing, dancing, coding, planning, researching, wood carving, and then you hear this little voice gently nudging you regarding how your time might be better spent on other activities. (Face it. You suck.)

An alternative, but equally effective route, does not involve this little voice. (…Fine.) You get down to start whatever it is you are trying to do, and you run into a creative wall, your equivalent of writer’s block. (Wood carver’s block?)

Either way, you’re not progressing fast enough and/or happily enough. This is usually a bummer because we walk into these endeavours thinking that all the creativity lives within us, and we’re just not good enough to let it out.

That’s one way to approach it.

Another way is to think about the creative process not as something that is in us like a personal characteristic, but rather something that visits us, a muse, or the original definition of a genius, which is a spirit; a person is thus not a genius, but rather, a person can have a genius. This means the creative process becomes a co-creative process, where you’d share the successes and failures of your outputs.

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of ‘Eat, Pray, Love’, talks about how the creative process is not rational in her TED Talk ‘Your elusive creative genius‘, such that we might as well think about it this way. We did, once upon a time.

So if the creative process is a two-part system, this means both you and the genius are invited to the party. If the genius is flaky, that’s not your problem. Your job is to show up to the party and create like it’s 1999. It’s kinda like that golfer aphorism, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” I like what Ms. Gilbert said:

‘Ole!’ to you, just for having the sheer human love and stubbornness to keep showing up.

Life In Your Years

Until I typed out my Blogging Break post, I didn’t really realize what this blog was about. It hasn’t been about applying Scrum principles to personal development, and then documenting my journey living this philosophy. Although that is how this started, it has moved into publicly scratching an itch.

I am convinced that all the advice we hear about how to live a better, more fulfilling, more ‘successful’, higher functioning life are all facets of the same gem. This is what I’m trying to understand. And then apply. And then share.

So every time a sparkle of this gem catches my eye, I can’t help but share. This past Sunday’s New York Times business section, in the Corner Office column by Adam Bryant, he interviewed Kon Leong, head of ZL Technologies, which archives emails and files. Leong gives advice to those graduating college.

If you experiment in different jobs and functions in those two or three years out of school, you will have a much better shot at finding your sweet spot. And the sweet spot is the intersection between what you’re really good at and what you love to do. If you can find that intersection, you are set. A lot of people would kill for that because, at 65, they’re retiring and never found it.

So don’t put so much emphasis on initial compensation. Don’t listen to all the harping from the family. Try to find your sweet spot and, once you find it, invest in that. You don’t want to get degrees just to do work you don’t really like. If you’re miserable, even if you make a lot of money, that’s still 40 years of your life.

Booyah! That’s powerful stuff, and I don’t think I’ve heard it phrased like that: you can’t get back that time. I like how Abraham Lincoln said it.

In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Life Is A Game Of Economics

A couple of days ago, over Spanish lattes, I waxed philosophical with a close friend. Both of us are Biomedical Engineers, and the only reason we became friends is because we arrived early to class one day, realized we never really… talked to each other, and then when it came up how we were both Business Administration minors, we figured, yeah, we should be friends.

The start sounds pretty superficial, yet our current conversations are anything but. A recurring theme from these caffeinated chats is how life is a game of economics. Let me repeat that. In bold.

Life is a game of economics.

Out there is a definition: Economics is the study of scarcity and choice.

Out there is a TED Talk: Bjorn Lomborg: Global priorities bigger than climate change – go watch it. This is one of my favorite TED Talks, shifting the discussion from global problems to global solutions, and then discussing how to use a limited resource, money (scarcity), to fully implement specific global solutions (choice). Here’s a hint for the rest of this post: take a shot every time he mentions prioritization.

Let’s think about scarcity as applied to what you put into life, and what you get out of it. ‘Scarcity Thinking’ assumes there is not enough in the world for everybody; it is fear-based.

Look at that guy over there. He’s so rich and cool and happy. He has it all. Why can’t I have it all? He sucks.

Scarcity Thinking is oh so negative, and is the opposite of what is espoused in ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne, which is ‘Abundance Thinking’. This reframes how we give value to reality via a mindset where there is enough in the world for everybody, including you; it is love-based.

Look at that guy over there. He’s so rich and cool and happy. He has it all. I might not think I have it all right now, but I will. He’s alright. (And so am I.)

These are two ways to think about what you get out of life, where the idea of there not being enough is a depressing thing. When applied to what you put into life, ScrumOfOne contends that indeed there is not enough, where this is both a realistic and empowering outlook. (Empowering? Yes. Stay with me.)

One more opposing juxtaposition: Scarcity Thinking for consequences of your life actions is fraught with limiting beliefs (heck, by definition). Yet when applied to the life actions themselves, it’s these same limiting beliefs that reflect the reality of what you can give at any one time; you only have so much time / focus / attention / energy / chi / cash / other resources.

Let’s put it all together. When thinking about your future (life outputs), think big: Abundance Thinking. When thinking about now and what’s next (life inputs), think small: Scarcity Thinking.

Let’s now think about choice regarding how to use the above list of what you have, which we’ll call funds: using the fund of cash, using the fund of focus, etc. (I’m phrasing this in an abstract manner to show they can all be thought of and treated the same way.) When you choose to use the money fund for a pair of shoes, you are also choosing to not use this same money fund for a fedora. When you choose to use the time fund for a few episodes of your favorite show on Netflix, you are also choosing to not use this same time fund for the latest movie in the theaters. Thus, the allotment of any of these elemental funds comes at a cost, which economists call an opportunity cost.

Every damn decision, every damn day, has a damn opportunity cost.

Let’s rephrase. Life is the result of not just what you choose to do, but what you chose to do in the context of what you chose not to do.

If you had an unlimited supply of time and money right now, an abundance of each elemental fund right now, you could end up doing all things. I’m not talking about how much of these elemental funds you could have in the future (nudge nudge, we’re practicing Abundance Thinking for that, remember?). I’m talking about right now. If you choose to buy a pair of shoes instead of a fedora, you are choosing a pair of shoes over a fedora. You might want to get both some day, but right now, you are choosing one first, over the other. Acting on your preference is acting out your prioritization.

That, ladies and gentlemen (girls and boys, children of all ages, and all the ships at sea), is the point of this post:

Life is a game of economics, a game of being comfortable with scarcity to make choices via prioritization.

How is this empowering? (Thank you for staying with me.) Once you realize you can’t do everything right now, this takes the pressure off; you can only ever do the next thing. That is what is under your full control: the now. Yes, complete small steps with the purpose of completing a larger step, enjoying the smaller completed accomplishments along the way, but realize the focus is on now and next. Embrace the scarcity of your funds right now, and make choices for now and next, using prioritization.

This makes me giddy because this life-level prioritization is a key component of ScrumOfOne, and it’s really been empowering me to find all this fun in the game of economics life.

Especially over Spanish lattes.

Change Your Whole Life At Twice

You might get to a point where you ask yourself,

Where do I begin?

You’ve got all these things you want to do, all these things you want to improve, all these things you want to change, all these… things. So you take all these things, list them, prioritize them, stuff I’ve been blogging about (see here for more).

Somewhere in the middle of all that, and closer to the beginning of this process, you think about your life. You think about how to think about your life… and then get to a point where you ask yourself,

Where do I begin?

If you read Steve Pavlina, specifically his series on The Meaning Of Life, you get to a section called Transitioning. This is for when you have your direction determined and are then acting on plans and projects to ‘get there’. The stuff in that post is also great for when you might not be as uber-organized or crystal clear as you go down your life path (like me! like most of us! HIGH FIVE!):

Don’t change each area of your life in a month. Change some and keep others stable.

Sounds simple, right? Don’t change your whole life at once, or even at twice, but in stages. Sounds like a no-brainer, so where is the insight? Once you reasonably partition out areas of your life, make a concerted effort to ignore all except one or two of your life segments.

Doesn’t that feel better? It’s another flavor of the message of focus (the Product Owner’s job in the land of Scrum), this time applied to life improvements at a macro level. For me, this means that I will start this year focusing on implementing habits and practices related to two areas of my life: my body and my finances.

Aaaaand this feels odd. This feels odd because it ignores my love of making music, which I’ve realized is the thing that makes my heart sing, pun intended. This feeling odd might be a sign that my focus is wrong, and you right there, sitting wherever you’re sitting, are witnessing a mistake in the making.

Aaaaand this is OK. In a couple of weeks, the length of my Sprint, I’ll have an opportunity to change direction after giving this a shot. This is a beauty of Scrum.

Happy New Year.

(Oh, and don’t make any New Year’s Resolutions!)

Bag It, Barter It, Better It

The blog title brought a strange sense of levity to me, like a cool, lavender breeze combing away how some things on my to-do list are such a freakin’ drag – ugghghhgghgh! (Yes, that spelling is accurate.)

I got this from life coach Martha Beck (she is damn fun to watch, FYI), and Oprah.com‘s covered it, so that right there is validation for this being a pill of goodness for your wretched little wonderfully fulfilling life.

What you do is take a thing on your to-do list, something you don’t like all too much, preferably something that, when you look at it, makes you sneer with the disgust that matches the subsequent churning in the gut of your gut, producing a little cloud of taupe emotions. You get the picture.

Look this item on your to-do list dead in the eyes. Then tell yourself:

I don’t have to do this. I choose to do this.

Whoa! What’s that? Choice? Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus choice. Unless, of course, that item on your to-do list is something like “remove the plastic bag wrapped around my head”, at which point you have larger issues, and, yes, you have to do this, for your physiological survival to get more things done from your to-do list. From here, decide to bag it, barter it, or better it.

Bagging it means totally scrapping it. To heck with it. Proclaim it unnecessary and heave a sigh of relief as you cross it off that list (some of us get a huge kick out of that simple act of crossing stuff out). This might not always be the best option, but isn’t it nice to contemplate it? What would happen if you don’t do this thing, realistically? Can you handle this? I bet you can. If you can’t, then there’s always…

Bartering it means, well, trading in some way. Can you pay somebody else to do it? Can you get somebody else to do it, and in exchange, you’ll make them an ice cream sundae? With sprinkles and everything? This is an option – you don’t have to do it yourself. Of course, maybe you do, in which case…

Bettering it means – ok, all these words are pretty self-extra-planetaryexplanatory. What can you do beforehand, afterwards, and/or during the completion of the to-do item that’ll just make the whole experience more palatable? Can you eat an ice cream sundae beforehand, snack on Long Island Iced Tea during, then do a victory lap with root beer floats?

You have things on that to-do list. How you do them is up to you. Remember, Virginia, you have choices.